filial piety

I've been thinking unhappy thoughts these days about the failure to share resources in the United States--and, especially, the insuffiency of care for the elderly.
There is a sort of stinginess about insisting that when a person leave this world, if she or he
happens to get help that they must end their life with zero resources to pass on to a child....

The policy in fact manages to affect mainly those who are not wealthy, and that too is not good.

But, as I found myself thinking of my father who worked hard all of his life and believed in the "American Dream", and as I review his current health situation and the insufficiency of the resources to which he has access, I found myself thinking of piety-- a special sort of respect, traditionally accorded to divinities... but also in another tradition accorded to family,
and even more broadly interpreted today to apply to nature and things which fill us with awe...

And I think that in the USA there is a lack of awe for the elderly, and most especially a lack of this virtue at the Department of Aging and Disability..... ( perhaps primarily because certain legislators lack this virtue...)

Recommended Reading
"Medicaid Estate Recover Program; Receipt Acknowledgement', a form available at the homepage of The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services;

Dacher Keltner, Born to be Good, WW Norton, New York, 2009; Chapter 12, "Awe".

Plato, The Euthyphro

After-Thought:
And, by the way, what happens if you are elderly and do not receive the medical care you need? What happens, say if you need treatment for pain, but do not receive adequate pain medicine, say, for two years? First of all, you suffer. You cannot perform your everyday activities. But, notice that, if you are retired, no employer suffers . . . . your problems do not have so great an effect on the ability of the capitalist class to increase their profits.... So, reasoning in this manner, one might suspect that the health problems of the older population would not be of great concern to the capitalist class.... but this is purely speculation....